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Cfriforen of tfje Eessutrcctioit 



BOOKS BY THE SAME A UTHOB 

Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush 

The Days of Auld Lang Syne 

A Doctor op the Old School 

Kate Carnegie 

The Upper Room 

The Mind op the Master 

The Cure of Souls 

The Potter's "Wheel 

The Companions of the Sorrowful 

Way 
Rabbi Saunderson 
The Young Barbarians 
The Homely Virtues 
also 
Life of Ian Maclaren 

By W. Bobertson Nicoll 



Cfnttiren of tfje IXetfurrectton 

BY 
JOHN WATSON, D.D. 

(IAN MACLAREN) 



NEW YORK 

33obb, ffltab anb Companp 

1912 



"2)52^30 

AA/3T 



Copyright, 1900, by 
JOHN WATSON 

Copyright, 1912, by 
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 

Published March, 1912 



gCLA303643 



(0 

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PREFATORY NOTE 

Some years ago preliminary ar- 
rangements were transacted for 
the publication of this book in 
America, but for some reason, of 
which I am ignorant, the final 
closure was postponed, and the 
author's death in 1907 left the 
matter unsettled. 

It is at my mother's desire, and 
through the courtesy of the pro- 
prietors of the Sunday Magazine, 
that these studies are now pub- 
lished in book form. 

FREDERICK WATSON. 

London, 
February 1912. 



Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Four Faithful Women . 1 1 

II A Sinner . . . .33 

III A Backslider . . .57 

IV Two Ordinary People . 85 
V The Company of Disciples 115 

VI The Lord's Brother . 137 

VII Thomas the Doubter . 159 



^otir :f aitftf ul W&omm 



1 

FOUR FAITHFUL WOMEN 

When Jesus rested from His la^ 
bour and His body slept in Jo- 
seph's tomb, it was the darkest 
day in the history of the Church. 
The Master had done His best to 
prepare the disciples for this 
trial, assuring them long before 
that His death was inevitable 
and that His resurrection was 
sure. But His words failed of 
their meaning; because He was 
yet present with them, His 

[ii] 



Four Faithful Women 

friends could not imagine His 
departure. His prophecy had 
been only too sadly fulfilled, and 
it might have been expected 
that, if the unbelief of the dis- 
ciples about the Lord's death had 
been overcome by the cruelty 
of facts, their unbelief regard- 
ing the Lord's resurrection would 
have yielded to the evidence of 
hope; but they were so stunned 
by their loss that, although they 
were now compelled to believe 
the Lord's word in the present, 
they had not yet strength to 
believe His word for the future. 
They were convinced that they 
would never again see their lost 
Lord, save it be in the resurrec- 
tion of the just, and their faith, 
[12] 



Four Faithful Women 

which was that of personal devo- 
tion, was buried with Jesus in 
His garden grave. 

They gathered, as we imagine, 
on that dreary Sabbath, in the 
upper room, which was full of 
sacred memories, and behaved 
themselves as other mourners 
have done in the same circum- 
stances at all times. For the 
years come and go, but sorrow 
does not change, and the heart's 
bitterness in the East is not 
different from that in the West. 
That company of mourners, for 
whom the funeral was over, 
would sit in silence broken only 
by the weeping of the women, 
whom the men could not com- 
[13] 



Four Faithful Women 

fort, because they had no comfort 
themselves. 

Certain were absent from the 
gathering for reasons which 
every one understood. John 
had taken the mother of Jesus 
home yesterday afternoon, and 
she hid her grief in seclusion, 
while the friend of Jesus re- 
mained with her to share her 
grief and do what he could 
to support her broken heart. 
Thomas was absent, not because 
he did not love, but because he 
loved so much, and saw no good 
in talk when hope was dead; and 
Peter was not there, because he 
could not look his brethren in the 
face after he had denied his Lord. 

By and by some one would 
[14] 



Four Faithful Women 

break the silence by recalling 
the life of the last three years, 
and then another would follow, 
till each mourner had contributed 
some work or word of the Lord's. 
And each reminiscence would 
feed the springs of sorrow. How 
the Master had called upon a 
young maiden just dead, and she 
had answered His voice, so that 
weeping and wailing changed 
into joy and peace in the ruler's 
house ; but there was no one 
here to wipe away their tears, 
or fill the upper room with light. 
How He had pity upon a widow's 
heart, and restored to her a son 
whom death had taken as his 
spoil; but there was no power 
to give back to the most bereaved 

[15] 



Four Faithful Women 

mother the kindest of all sons. 
How He Himself had missed His 
friend Lazarus, and commanded 
him to return from his rocky 
tomb, and Lazarus came, because 
death was not able to separate 
the friends; but none of them, 
though they were all His friends, 
could make their Master hear in 
Joseph's tomb. Three years of 
perfect fellowship, such as before 
had never been given to un- 
worthy men, and never could 
be given again, and now their 
day of grace and brightness 
was forever over, and for them 
there remained nothing but the 
memory of perfect goodness 
without the shadow of a fault. 
Theirs was an incalculable and 
[16] 



Four Faithful Women 

irreparable loss, and yet, so fond 
a thing is the human heart, none 
of this company, not even Thomas 
himself, would have wished the 
three years blotted out, but 
every one would count them 
the chief treasure of his heart. 

Four faithful souls had not 
yet done with Jesus, for, though 
they did not expect to see Him 
again, His dust was precious to 
them, and they had still certain 
last offices of kindness to render. 
When the body was laid in the 
tomb, they marked the spot, and 
it was their intention when the 
Sabbath closed and the day had 
broken to enrich with spices 
the tabernacle from which the 

[17] 



Four Faithful Women 

Lord had fled. One was Mary 
Magdalene, and another was Mary 
the mother of James, and a third 
was Salome, John's mother, and 
the fourth was Joanna, a lady of 
Herod's court. Between them 
all there had been a conspiracy 
that without the help of any one, 
and in spite of any hindrance, 
they should accomplish their last 
service to the Lord. They had 
gathered in Salome's house; but 
no one must know, not even 
Mary the mother of Jesus, who 
had suffered enough, nor John, 
who might not have allowed 
them to go on such an errand. 
They were cunning in their love, 
and a woman can ever outwit 
a man when love is her guide; 
[18] 



Four Faithful Women 

and they would do this thing 
by themselves, and none should 
know till it was done. 

Through the night they waited 
and watched for the day, and 
it seemed as if night had never 
been so long; and, when hour 
followed hour with leaden feet, 
and still there was no sign of 
morning, the four lost patience. 
They read a common resolution 
in one another's faces, and like 
a thief they quietly stole from 
the house. Through the night 
which is darkest before the dawn, 
and through the silent city which 
seemed as if it were dead, they 
made their way with cautious 
step but steadfast hearts to 
Joseph's garden. Was there 
[19] 



Four Faithful Women 

ever such an instance of women's 
unreasoning and unguarded love? 
Why could they not wait? It 
would only be an hour or so more, 
and then the sun had risen. Had 
they forgotten the dangers of the 
city to four women in the dark- 
ness? and what availed their go- 
ing to the sepulchre, with that 
great stone lying upon its mouth? 
Could women's hands or women's 
love remove that stone? Sensi- 
ble questions and unanswerable, 
but they are out of place this 
morning, for the women have 
obeyed the imperious instinct 
of their hearts, and the issue is 
with God. 

Very early had they arisen, 
[20] 



Four Faithful Women 

but their Lord had risen earlier ; 
for, while they were watching 
with weary hearts for the day 
which seemed never likely to 
break, He had folded up His 
grave-clothes and laid them aside, 
and had come forth as the Sun 
of Righteousness, before whom 
death and darkness fled. "When 
the four reached the garden, the 
day was breaking with shimmer- 
ing light, and to their amazement 
the sepulchre of the Lord was 
empty. They had wondered who 
should roll away the stone, but 
there was no stone to hinder 
their entrance; they had an un- 
covenanted tryst with Christ, 
but, behold, He had been faith- 
less once at least, and had not 
[21] 



Four Faithful Women 

kept it; they had spices with 
them which were not so fragrant 
as His love, but now they were 
vain and useless. 

Yet their Master had not for- 
gotten them, but, expecting this 
early visit, had left two of His 
heavenly friends, the holy angels, 
to give a message to His earthly 
friends and to bid them be of 
good cheer. ' Why seek ye the 
living among the dead? ' said the 
shining ones, with kindly rebuke 
filled to the brim with consola- 
tion. ' He is not here, but is 
risen.' And the angels com- 
manded the women in the Lord's 
name to return to the disciples 
and to assure them of the res- 
urrection. They had watched 
[22] 



Four Faithful, Women 

for the Lord, though it was only 
for His body, as those that 
watch for the morning, and the 
morning had come with the an- 
gels and words of gladness. 

Through the streets they 
hurried, which were now full 
of soft morning light, and on 
every side the city was awaken- 
ing to light, and they imagined 
the joy of their coming into the 
upper room, where the disciples 
would again be gathered, and 
the effect of their message. 
What the angels had been to 
them they would be to their 
friends. 

Alas for a woman's emotion! 
alas for a man's hard common 
[23] 



Four Faithful Women 

sense! When they burst into 
the room with the new spirit of 
the resurrection, the disciples 
stared at them, and the very- 
look was a rebuke. As they 
told their tale of an empty tomb 
— they had seen no Lord — one 
disciple would look at another 
and raise his eyebrows, and the 
other would shake his head, and 
both were sure that they under- 
stood the situation. Those good 
women! They had been watch- 
ing all night — women will do 
such things; apostles had slept, 
even in Gethsemane. They had 
been weeping till their eyes were 
nearly blind — 'tis a woman's 
way, for God has made them so, 
not calm and self-restrained like 
[24] 



Four Faithful Women 

men. Then they went on their 
wild journey — was there no man 
there to prevent them? And 
through their tears and in the 
uncertain morning light they 
supposed that they had seen 
angels and heard voices. Those 
good women ! For a moment the 
disciples almost expected that 
the women had some good news 
to tell, but now any one could 
understand how it all happened. 
No one would be so cruel as to 
accuse them of falsehood, none 
so ungenerous as flatly to deny 
their message; but, as the 
women looked round on the 
faces of their friends, they knew 
that they had only told to them 
an idle tale, and their enthusiasm 
[25] 



Four Faithful Women 

broke like spray upon the calm, 
cold front of a man's solid reason. 

Mary Magdalene was more 
fortunate than her fellows, as 
she was that day to be more 
honoured by her Lord, for, while 
the others went with their 
message to the general company 
of disciples, she was sent on an 
errand of her own to John and 
Peter. The devotion of the one 
and the energy of the other gave 
Mary a better audience, and she 
had no sooner told her story than 
the two apostles flung themselves 
out of their home, and started 
on a race of love to verify the 
rising of the Lord. John was the 
quieter man, to whom all haste 
[26] 



Four Faithful Women 

and display were alien; but love 
gave wings to his feet that day, 
and the city through which he 
passed was unseen and forgotten. 
When he arrived at the empty 
tomb, he did not enter, because 
to him the place where the Lord 
had lain was sacred. But when 
Peter, whom he had for once 
outdistanced in his haste, stood 
beside him, he did not hesitate, 
but entered in and made certain 
that the Lord had risen. So 
there were two men at least who 
shared the women's faith, and 
did not count their message to 
be foolishness, and there will 
always be men who, through 
either the purity of their hearts 
or the warmth of their affections, 

[27] 



Four Faithful Women 

will sympathise with the spir- 
itual instincts of women, and will 
share the blessing that rests upon 
women 's spiritual love. 

Who were wiser that day, the 
men with their shrewdness and 
their slowness to believe, or the 
women with their unworldly 
mind and their fond hearts? 
Can nothing happen which has 
not happened before, and is 
past experience the limit of the 
Almighty! Is there nothing 
except that which is seen, and 
no power in reserve which we 
have not tested? Is not life 
greater than death, and the 
unseen world encompassing us 
on every side? And is there 
not a blessing which hath not 
[28] 



Four Faithful. Women 

entered into the heart of man, 
ready for those who believe 
because they love, and are ready 
to serve even when service seems 
to be in vain! 



129] 



3 gunner 



IX 

A SINNER 

The history of the Church is the 
record of honour which God has 
bestowed upon elect souls, and 
some of those honours are to be 
chiefly coveted, and those who 
receive them are ever to be 
envied. The man, for instance, 
who first was called by the 
Divine voice, and in his faith 
left home and friends, to follow 
God; the first prophet whose 
ear the Almighty uncovered, and 
who declared the will of God 
[33] 



A Sinner 

with authority to his generation; 
the first disciple who accepted 
the Son of Grod as his master, 
and entered on the way of the 
Holy Cross; and the first martyr 
who laid down his life for the 
love of the Lord, and sealed his 
testimony to the gospel with his 
own blood. Neither the passing 
of centuries nor the changes of 
life can depose those favoured 
persons from their place, nor take 
away their crown. Yet there 
remains an honour more intimate 
and more gracious, which marked 
the daybreak of the Church, and 
that was to be the first witness 
of the Lord's resurrection. The 
thoughts of our Master are not 
as ours, neither are His ways as 
[34] 



A Sinner 

our ways. Having this guerdon 
of His love to bestow — the first 
crown from the hands of the 
risen King — He did not choose 
St. Peter of the apostles, nor 
St. John among his friends, but 
He revealed Himself to one whom 
He had lifted from the depths of 
sin and set upon the heights of 
love — and the Lord l appeared 
first to Mary Magdalene, out 
of whom He had cast seven 
devils.' 

This faithful lover of the Lord 
had been among the four women 
who had found the empty grave 
at the rising of the sun, and she 
had already been distinguished 
as the messenger to carry the 
good tidings to Peter and John. 
[35] 



A Sinner 

Joy had winged her feet as she 
went with the angel's words, 
and, drawn by the irresistible 
attraction of the empty tomb, 
she followed the two apostles to 
the garden. Her woman's step, 
even with the aid of hope, could 
not keep time with men who 
must needs run that they might 
verify the amazing tale. When 
Mary came to the place the 
apostles had come and gone. 
The garden was empty, and she 
was alone. And then set in the 
reaction which follows moments 
of supreme emotion. The shining 
ones had told her that Christ 
was risen, and for the moment, 
overcome by their authority, she 
had believed and been glad, for 
[36] 



A Sinner 

she took for granted that if the 
Lord were risen He would imme- 
diately be seen, and that she who 
had come to care for His body 
would look upon His face. Had 
she been deceived, and believed 
what was too good to be true? 
Eisen He might be; gone He 
certainly was. The longing for 
sight, which is strong with us all, 
and most imperious with a woman 
whose whole affection centres in 
a person, took hold of Mary 
Magdalene and overwhelmed both 
faith and hope. Had she only 
the dear remains upon which she 
had counted in the morning she 
would not be utterly bereaved, 
but now she stretched out her 
hands and her heart to emptiness, 
[37] 



A Sinner 

and Mary Magdalene tasted the 
agony of those passionate hearts 
which rise in turn to the height 
of sunlit joy to sink into the 
black depths of despair. 

Far from the tomb she could 
not wander, who was now indeed 
carrying that grave within her 
heart; and again she looked in, 
who did not venture to enter. 
The servants of the Lord were 
there as before, to meet and 
comfort, for none are more faith- 
ful and patient in our days of 
trouble than the angels; but it 
is a proof of her hopelessness 
that their presence brought her 
now no cheer. Her heart in its 
foolishness of love had read too 
much into their words, though 
[38] 



A Sinner 

they seemed plain enough an 
hour ago ; now she was compelled 
to take them at the lowest 
meaning; now she would put 
aside her fond grief and be 
practical and sensible. She had 
been weeping in the garden and 
looking into the sepulchre; she 
still wept, but behind the tears 
she had her design — the only 
service and the only comfort left 
to her. ' Woman/ said the 
shining one, ' why weepest 
thou? ' — to whom we brought 
good tidings, who lately was so 
glad. She does not reproach 
them with the words which had 
deceived her, or with which she 
had deceived herself; it was no 
use inquiring who was to blame. 
[39] 



A Sinner 

She would take things as they 
stood. And this was plain to 
her, that Jesus might be gone, 
but He was not alive, or else He 
had made Himself known to the 
fond hearts who loved Him, and 
whom He loved. One complaint 
only she had to make, and she 
knew not to whom to make it. 
' They have taken away my Lord, 
and I know not where they have 
laid Him.' She wept now be- 
cause the tomb was empty, as 
once she had wept because it was 
filled. She had rejoiced in the 
hope of seeing her living Lord; 
she were content now with a 
dead Lord. She says ' my Lord/ 
with a woman's sense of jeal- 
ous possession, with a woman's 
[40] 



A SlNNEE 

resentment of a stranger's inter- 
ference. 

The angels did not answer 
Mary, for they saw what she did 
not yet see, and they knew that 
their work was done ; they might 
leave the grave now, and go 
upon other errands, for the Lord 
had come Himself to be His 
disciple 's comforter. Even while 
she spoke to the angels Mary 
had a sense that some one was 
standing near. It may have been 
the shadow flung upon the tomb, 
or the sound of His footsteps, 
or only the feeling of a human 
presence; but without waiting 
for the angel's answer, Mary 
turned round. Some one was 
standing near her; who he was 
[41] 



A Sinner 

she could not tell, for she hardly- 
looked at him, and her eyes were 
dim with weeping; but whoever 
he might be, at least he was 
compassionate, and understand- 
ing. He took up the angel's 
question, which will be asked of 
woman while the world last: 
I Why weepest thou? ' And 
then he showed that he could 
enter into a woman's heart, for 
he added, ' Whom seekest thou? 9 
For men seek after gold and 
honour, and weep when they do 
not get them; but women seek 
after love, and weep when the 
loved one is lost. ' What seekest 
thou? ' had been more likely for 
a man, * Whom seekest thou? ' 
was the tribute paid to a woman. 
[42] 



A SlNNEK 

Some note in his words caught 
her ear, and suggested to her 
mind the solution of this mys- 
tery. She remembered that Jesus, 
having no grave of His own, had 
been dependent on a stranger 
for His resting-place, and was 
indeed only a guest in the matter 
of a grave. Since she had known 
the Lord He had owned no home, 
and had laid His head beneath 
the roof of strangers, and now 
He had suffered the strangers' 
penalty. For a night they had 
allowed Him to rest in this rich 
man's tomb, because there was 
no other place to put Him; but 
now they had removed His body, 
that this fine sepulchre might be 
left vacant for the owner; and 
[43] 



A Sinner 

Jesus' body had been laid out of 
sight in some common ground. 
This man had charge of the 
garden, and most likely had 
directed the removal. It was an 
inhospitable thing to do; heart- 
less, and cruel to the poor dead, 
who had room in His heart for 
all strangers and their sorrows. 
They might have allowed the 
Lord to lie in peace, who had 
given peace to many souls. But 
there was no use complaining. 
Mary had no heart for reproaches 
nor for arguments. She was a 
woman who once could have 
spoken and made men's ears 
tingle; she had love enough in 
her heart to be a raging fire, and 
to burn any one who touched 
[44] 



A Sinner 

her beloved. To-day she was a 
broken and humbled woman with 
only one desire — to find ' my 
Lord.' She would be respectful 
even and conciliatory with this 
servant, who in his little hour of 
authority had rifled the grave, 
and cast out her Lord, and 
crowned the inhospitality of his- 
tory. i Sir/ she said to him, i if 
it is thou who hast borne Him 
hence, I have only one thing to 
ask, if thou wilt grant it of thy 
goodness. Tell me the corner, 
hidden and out of the way, where 
thou hast laid Him. I make no 
complaint, but for thee He was 
nothing but a crucified man, but 
He was everything to me. You 
will not be troubled with Him in 
[45] 



A Sinner 

this garden, for though I be only 
a woman, helpless and despised, 
I will take my Lord away, and 
find for Him a grave that shall 
be His own, and mine. This is 
all I can do, but if you will only 
show me the place, this I will 
do, for it is nothing compared to 
what He did for me/ 

While she spoke she did not 
look at the gardener, but rather 
turned aside, as a woman in such 
a moment of strong feeling was 
likely to do. For an instant 
there was silence, and then the 
gardener said, i Mary! ' It was 
only a single word, but a word 
can be more than volumes spoken 
by the lips which speak it. 
Between strangers a word is only 
[46] 



A Sinner 

so many syllables and so much 
sound; it means just what it 
must mean on the surface, and 
nothing more. Between friends 
who have passed through chief 
moments of life together, who 
have lived in closest fellowship, 
who, looking into one another's 
eyes, have seen one another's 
hearts, a word becomes a symbol, 
and a message, and a revelation, 
and a gift. For a stranger to 
call you by your name is nothing, 
no more than if he had called 
you by a figure. When the per- 
son whom you love pronounces 
your name, the sound goes 
through your being, awakening 
sacred memories and making ten- 
der your heart. The name now is 
[47] 



A Sinner 

poetry and music; it is a golden 
cup filled with cordial; it is a 
casket filled with jewels. Jesus 
had a way of saying * Mary ' 
which no other had, and she 
never knew how beautiful her 
name was till it fell from His 
lips; and at the sound of the 
word the mist passed away from 
her eyes, and the gardener 
changed into ' my Lord.' 

Turning swiftly round at the 
bidding of the word, she flung 
herself at Jesus' feet, and would 
have taken Him by His garments, 
crying in her native dialect, to 
which people fall back in their 
tenderest moments, ' my Master.' 
The angels then had spoken the 
truth, and she had understood 
[48] 



A SlNNEB, 

them aright in the morning hour. 
The grave was empty, not be- 
cause it had been robbed of the 
dead body, but because the Lord 
was alive again. All He had 
said had come true. How had 
they ever forgotten it? All they 
could ever have hoped was now 
real. How should they ever 
have doubted it? The dark and 
bitter day which had so tried her 
heart was over, and now the 
little company of friends would 
gather together once more, and 
go down to Galilee, and live as 
they did before the shadow of 
the Cross fell upon them. How 
good God had been, for she had 
only asked to have the Lord's 
body and a place where she could 
[49] 



A Sinner 

lay it, that there she might weep 
every year at Passover time. 
But, behold, she had the Lord's 
own living self — ' my Master.' 

When Jesus replied to Mary 
and almost drew Himself away, 
saying, ' Lay no hold upon me,' 
it seemed unlike our Lord, and a 
chilling return for her love. One 
remembers how He responded to 
a woman's touch when she had 
only faith enough to grasp the 
hem of His garment, how He 
welcomed a woman's devotion 
when she anointed His feet with 
ointment; and now He would 
not allow this joyful disciple to 
clasp His feet in the supreme 
moment of relief and gladness. 
His explanation, however, follows 
[50] 



A Sinner 

close upon His refusal, and turns 
it into a revelation. Better 
things were in store for Mary 
than she had imagined, for the 
Resurrection was only the prelude 
to the Ascension, and the Ascen- 
sion would begin the perfect 
fellowship. Jesus was to ascend 
to His father and their Father, 
to His God and their God. And 
in the Father Jesus and all His 
disciples were brethren, and 
would live together, the brother 
life as it were, in the Father's 
house. It would not be, as in 
time past, that they should see 
Him one day, and be separated 
from Him the next, that they 
should depend upon His spoken 
words and His visible presence, 

[51] 



A Sinner 

for He would be with them 
always and in all places, sharing 
their lot both in joy and sorrow, 
and living in their hearts. Mary 
and the other disciples had known 
the Lord in the flesh ; they would 
know Him henceforward in the 
spirit. And they who had learned 
to love Him whom they saw, 
must learn to trust Him when 
unseen. He had risen from the 
dead, and by and by He would 
ascend into the heavenly places, 
and their faith must rise from 
earth to heaven, till it was rooted 
and grounded in the Lord, at the 
right hand of God the Father. 

They are blessed between 
whom and the Master there have 
been such passages of friendship 
[52] 



A Sinner 

that He calls them by their 
name with the accent of love, 
and who at the sound of their 
name can recognise their Lord. 
It matters not to them in what 
circumstances of their life they 
meet the Lord, nor how He 
appears. They need no evidences 
and no testimony to identify 
Him. It is enough that He 
should call, and their souls, hear- 
ing in their name His password, 
answer back, ' Master.' Twice 
blessed are they whose faith is 
not confined to times and seasons, 
to rites and sacraments, but has 
so apprehended the risen and 
spiritual Christ that He is ever 
with them — in the city where 
the multitude is hurrying to and 
[53] 



A Sinner 

fro, as well as in the garden 
where there is none passing; in 
the place of feasting where He 
shows His grace of humility and 
service, and at the grave's mouth 
where He brings life and com- 
fort. Most blessed they who 
shall see the Lord in the dawning 
of the Eesurrection morning, and 
shall follow Him when sorrow 
has passed away, and He leads 
His people to living fountains of 
water. 



[54] 



3 Patfesliber 



m 

A BACKSLIDER 

The second appearance of our 
Lord on Easter Day is veiled in 
a certain mystery of circum- 
stances, for there is no record 
of where it took place or of what 
passed between the two. Few 
words may, however, record a 
chief fact, and their very brevity 
is invested with significance; 
and it is with marked emphasis 
that St. Luke reports the joyful 
greeting of the disciples on the 
evening of the great day, when 
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A Backslider 

they said to the friends return- 
ing from Emmaus, ' The Lord is 
risen indeed, and hath appeared 
to Simon/ And in St. Paul's 
chapter of immortal hope, when 
he declares the doctrine of the 
resurrection to the Corinthian 
Church, he writes : ' He was seen 
of Cephas, then of the twelve.' 

The understanding of the dis- 
ciples on that day of spiritual 
intensity was quick, and their 
hearts were tender; and one 
gathers that they entered into 
the singular grace of our Lord's 
revelation to Simon Peter. Be- 
fore the chief day in human 
history — a day more charged 
with hope and strength than all 
other days put together — had 
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A Backslider 

come to an end, the Master would 
show Himself unto the body of 
His disciples, but it was His will 
for reasons of His goodness to 
meet in private with certain of 
His friends. First He showed 
Himself to Mary Magdalene in 
the morning, because she loved so 
much, and forever in the experi- 
ence of the soul love will have 
the earliest vision and the 
gentlest, though it may see 
through tears. The second was 
at noontide of the day, and it 
was to an apostle, because he 
had sinned so much and was so 
utterly broken-hearted, and re- 
pentance will never fail to secure 
the Lord's presence and the 
showing of His face. First to 
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A Backslider 

Mary Magdalene (and to other 
women also). Next to St. Peter, 
earliest witness from among the 
apostles. 

Were merit the rule of our 
Lord's dealing with His disciples, 
then it would fare differently 
with many of us, and He had not 
appeared after this fashion to 
Simon Peter. If this honour had 
gone by deserts, then one apostle 
might have claimed it for his own, 
and he had received it by consent, 
both of his Lord and of his breth- 
ren. They were not lifted above 
petty jealousies, those twelve 
apostles of the Lord, nor were 
they overwilling to honour one 
another, but yet they did ac- 
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A Backslider 

knowledge that one was nearest to 
the Master. They gave John his 
place where he could lay his head 
on the Master's breast; through 
him they put their questions 
to the Master; he had followed 
the Master to the high priest's 
palace; he had stood beside the 
Master's cross; into his hands 
Jesus had entrusted His mother, 
and this apostle had in his home 
the dearest treasure of his Lord. 
It might have been expected 
that, as John had been the last 
apostle with whom Jesus spake 
before He laid down His life, he 
would have been the first whom 
Jesus would greet after He had 
taken up His life again. There 
would have been a fitness in the 
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A Backsuder 

words: i The Lord is risen in- 
deed, and hath appeared unto 
John ' ; and none of the apostles 
would have had the heart to 
grudge. 

It is like the Lord to be guided 
not by His personal liking, but 
by that spirit of service which 
He ever preached; and so He 
went not first to John, because 
He loved him most, but to Peter, 
because Peter needed Him most. 
One dares to believe in justice to 
the apostles that, if the Lord had 
asked them to choose that one 
from among their number to 
whom they desired Him to go 
without delay, they would have 
mentioned Simon Peter; for none 
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A Backslider 

of them, not even Thomas, was 
in such a strait, and none of them, 
not even John, was in his heart 
more loyal. It was like the Lord 
to do this thing, and made the 
Lord dearer to them than ever, 
and it was a sure evidence that 
He had risen from the dead, 
that, out of the eleven, He had 
appeared first to Simon Peter. 

It had been St. Peter's fault 
that he ever wished to be first, 
and first he had been, but not in 
honour, nor in service, but first, 
without any rivalry, in treachery. 
There is a competition in sin, 
and sins have their comparative 
value of demerit, and there can 
be no question that St. Peter out- 
distanced all his brethren, when 
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A Backslider 

one looks at the pathetic and 
intimate circumstances of his 
sin. The other disciples had 
boasted what they would do for 
their Lord; but they were only 
Peter's chorus, compelled to keep 
tune with him when he declared 
his valiant loyalty. The other 
disciples had also slept in the 
garden, but they had not prom- 
ised to be the Lord's body- 
guard. They all fled and left 
their Lord; but none of them, 
except this man, had gone into 
the high priest's palace, and 
thrust himself among the guards 
of Christ, as if on very purpose 
to put the Lord to shame, and 
do Him greater insult than when 
His enemies spat upon His face 
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A Backslider 

and pressed the jagged thorns 
upon His brow. 

Judas Iscariot had plotted 
against the Lord, and betrayed 
Him to the priests, and sold 
Him for money, and kissed Him 
on the mouth. It was a hideous 
and incredible crime, and — taken 
simply in itself as a bare, black 
fact — that is the master crime of 
the human race. But Judas had 
always been a man of mean, lean 
soul, hedged round and blinded 
by this present world, and inca- 
pable of spiritual vision. He had 
never been the friend of Jesus, 
and never had been touched by 
the divine fascination of the 
Master; he had never entered 
into the Master's mind, or had a 
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A Backslider 

glimpse of the glory of the king- 
dom of God. 



Simon Peter was one of the 
Lord's first disciples, who had 
been prepared by the Baptist 
for Christ, and had thrown him- 
self into the Master's cause with 
generous, uncalculating enthusi- 
asm. He had hung upon the 
Master's lips, he had laid himself 
at the Master's feet, he had loved 
the Master with all his heart, 
and had been willing, as he 
believed, to die for the Master's 
sake. This man had made the chief 
confession of the New Testa- 
ment, and this man had received 
the Lord's chief promise. And 
it was he who had gone out of 
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A Backslider 

his way to deny the Lord, and 
invested his denial with every 
circumstance of offence. Choos- 
ing the time when the Lord 
needed friends most, taking for 
his witnesses the ignoble rabble 
of the high priest's servants, 
trampling upon his flag at the 
invitation of a serving girl, as- 
serting that not only was he not 
a friend of Jesus, but that he did 
not even know Him, and crown- 
ing all this falsehood and igno- 
miny by curses which he had 
learned at his fishing trade, but 
had forgotten for a while in 
Jesus 's company. If in the world 
Judas must have the place of 
chief sinner, within the Church it 
belongs to Simon Peter, to whom 
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A Backslider 

the Lord revealed Himself alone 
on Easter Day. 

According to Simon Peter's sin 
was the keenness of his remorse, 
and among the disciples there 
was none, and could be none, 
with a heart so sore on Easter 
Day. They all mourned because 
they had lost their Lord, but 
between their regret and his 
there was a great gulf fixed, since 
they had only lost, but he had 
also denied. They had seen the 
Lord last in the moonlight of 
Gethsemane, sad enough sight; 
he had seen Him last in the 
firelight of the high priest's 
palace, far sadder sight. In the 
garden Jesus had interceded for 
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A Backslider 

the eleven that they might go 
free; but in the courtyard He 
had looked on him, and he had 
gone bound with sorrow into the 
darkness. 

They all longed to see their 
Lord again, but none of them had 
a reason so keen; for the ten only 
desired to satisfy themselves with 
His visible presence, who had 
been the light of their lives, but 
he had to ask His forgiving 
mercy for the last outrage on 
friendship. If only he could have 
one minute alone with his Lord, 
although he never saw Him again, 
to explain himself, and to beseech 
forgiveness! He could not even 
now tell how he had come to do 
so cruel and wicked an action, 
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A Backslider 

but he could entreat the Lord to 
believe that his heart was not 
utterly that of a traitor, and that 
he was not, whatever it might ap- 
pear, the same as Judas. What 
he had done he had done, and 
there was no one to blame but 
himself, his pride, his boasting, 
and his cowardice; but still he 
loved, and in the depths of his 
heart was true. 

He lashed himself with scorn 
and bitter self-upbraiding, more 
cruel than the thongs which 
lacerated the shoulders of the 
Master, but Jesus did not know. 
He cried aloud, and broke the 
night air with his weeping, but 
Jesus could not see. All Jesus 
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A Backslider 

had seen was His apostle keeping 
company with the high priest's 
servants, and swearing aloud that 
he had never known his Lord. 
Too late now to repent, too 
late now to ask forgiveness; it 
mattered nothing to the Lord 
now who denied Him or who 
insulted Him, for He had passed 
beyond all earthly words, and 
was at rest, but Peter never more 
could be at rest. that the 
dead could be brought back for 
the briefest time that we might 
tell them that we had not in- 
tended so to wound them, or so 
to neglect them ! But they sleep 
in peace; it is for us there can- 
not be peace forever. 

It was like the Lord that His 
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A Backslider 

pity should rest upon this man, 
and others like him, beyond all 
who have sinned and sorrowed; 
for Jesus ever counted the agony 
of the heart greater than the 
agony of the life. He had com- 
passion on the widow who lost 
her only son, and on the ruler 
who lost his little girl, because 
He loved children and they loved 
Him ; but the chief sorrow of the 
world is not the death of friends. 
He wept over Jerusalem, which 
knew not the day of her visitation, 
and had rejected the anointed of 
the Lord; He was cast down by 
Judas 's betrayal, and was in pain 
till Judas left; but even unbelief 
and treachery of evil hearts are not 
the chief sorrow. The most cruel 
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A Backslider 

of all spiritual agonies is that 
of the backslider who has been 
received into the Father's house 
with mercy and with joy and has 
gone again into the far country; 
who has been decked with the 
robe and with the ring, and has 
sold them for riotous living ; who 
has abused the very love of God 
and made His grave an oppor- 
tunity for sin. When he cometh 
to himself, it is with weeping and 
with trembling, and with the sor- 
row of his heart none can meddle. 
Therefore is it that there are 
no promises in Scripture so 
appealing and so tender as those 
which are sent after the back- 
slider by the voice of the 
prophets, as if God, who had 
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A Backslider 

been Himself so deeply wounded, 
alone could estimate the broken 
heart of them who wounded Him. 
None understood Simon Peter 
like the Master, and none could 
enter so entirely into his re- 
morse. While Peter thought of 
Jesus, his Master was thinking 
of him, and one of the first er- 
rands of the risen Lord was to 
bind up the broken heart of His 
penitent apostle. 

Where they met we are not 
told, but we may allow ourselves 
to guess. It was not in the 
upper room, for Peter could not 
appear among the disciples till 
he had been restored by the 
Lord; it would not be in John's 
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A Backslider 

kindly house, nor could it be in 
any public place, for this meet- 
ing must be in secret. It is not 
likely that on that day which 
had opened with the message of 
Mary Magdalene and the sight 
of the empty grave, that agitated 
heart could contain itself within 
any walls, however friendly, and 
we may assume that St. Peter 
went out and sought for some 
place where he could spend 
the time surrounded by the 
memory of his Lord. Was it 
not most probable that he turned 
to that garden whither he had 
gone with the Lord from the 
upper room, and where he had 
been afforded so great an in- 
timacy, so that where the Lord's 
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A Backslider 

own soul had been wrung till 
He sweated as it were great 
drops of blood, lie might also 
suffer and there — who knows? — 
might be remembered of the 
Lord? Did he seek out the very 
spot where he had seen Jesus lie, 
and there cast himself? 

What passed between them, 
when of a sudden the Lord with 
the marks of the Passion upon 
Him, but the cup of the Father's 
will now filled with joy, stood 
beside His prostrate apostle, no 
evangelist has recorded, because 
neither Peter nor the Lord ever 
told. There was to be a public 
conversation between them, full 
of beautiful emotions which 
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A Backslider 

would be recorded for our in- 
struction, but that was to come 
later. There are secrets of re- 
ligion which cannot be put in 
words, and which it were a 
spiritual indecency to breathe. 
There are revelations of God 
given to the soul which belong 
to the third heavens and not 
to earth. There are convictions 
which are surer than anything 
which can be seen, but of which 
we can give no proof to our 
fellowmen. ' I said, I will con- 
fess my transgressions unto the 
Lord,' so wrote the penitent 
backslider of the Old Testa- 
ment, ' and Thou forgavest the 
iniquity of my sin.' Here were 
the prayer and the answer, but 
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A Backslider 

in between came that moment 
where there can be no witness, 
of which there can be no descrip- 
tion. 

He could not trust his melting soul 

But in his Maker's sight ; — 
Then why should gentle hearts and true 
Bare to the rude world's withering view 
Their treasure of delight ? 

Within that hour St. Peter 
was again converted and came 
forth a new man. Never again 
would he exalt himself above 
his brethren, save in his willing- 
ness to suffer ; never again would 
he talk of himself, save of his 
own unworthiness. He would 
be tried in days to come as he 
had never been before, and he 
who had denied the Lord at the 
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A Backslider 

word of a girl would confess the 
same Lord before the rulers of the 
people, and he who had shrunk 
from the contempt of serving 
men would take a scourging for 
the Lord's sake joyfully. Boldly 
would he preach the gospel, 
bravely would he lead the 
Church, humbly at last would he 
die. He had been called in the 
Lord's vast charity, who saw the 
best and not the worst in every 
one of His disciples, ' a rock 
man/ and he had proved to be 
only shifting sand, but now in this 
fierce fire of penitence and mercy, 
the mercy more melting even 
than the penitence, the sand had 
been welded into iron, and on the 
foundation of this man's faith so 
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A Backslider 

clear, so modest, so lasting, 
would be reared the Church of 
the living God, wherein every 
stone is a sinner converted, for- 
given and sanctified. 

Simon Peter has not been the 
only disciple who denied and 
repented, and there have been 
many secret meetings between 
the Lord and His Peters since 
the first Easter Day. If any one 
be overtaken by temptation and 
fall, to the grief of the Lord and 
the undoing of his own soul, it is 
good for him that he should be 
covered with shame and that his 
heart should be broken, that he 
should go for a while into spiritual 
darkness, and be grieved in his 
soul before all men. He sorrows 
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A Backslider 

not in such days as those who 
have no hope, nor is he misunder- 
stood or forgotten of his Lord. 
This same Jesus remembers not 
so much how His disciple failed 
in a single moment of trial, as 
how he has loved all the other 
moments of his life : not so much 
what His disciple did in the 
weakness of his will, but what he 
intended to do in the loyalty 
of his heart. If Jesus seems to 
tarry, and leaves him alone for 
a little in his Gethsemane, it is 
while he intercedes for him with 
the Father, and explains that 
this man after all is a good dis- 
ciple and a true Son of God. 
When the time is ripe and the 
disciple's heart is ready, then will 
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A Backslider 

the Lord appear. When no man 
is present and the world is as 
if it never had been, in a secret 
place He will hear the disciple's 
confession. In that hour the 
disciple can do nothing, except 
lie at the Lord's feet, and He 
will seal upon the penitent soul 
His word of full forgiveness. It 
is from such experiences the 
soul comes forth strong through 
humility, consecrated through 
gratitude, and joyful through 
vision, to suffer and to conquer, 
and so the gentleness of the Lord 
makes us great. 



[82] 



Itoo ©rbtnarp people 



IV 

TWO ORDINARY PEOPLE 

The appearances of our Lord 
on Easter Day illustrate the 
sovereignty of His love as much 
as the mystery of His body. In 
the early dawn, when the dew 
was still fresh upon the earth, 
Jesus revealed Himself to Mary 
Magdalene; when it was noon- 
tide of the day, and men were 
hiding from the heat, He sought 
out St. Peter; when it was 
toward evening, and the weary 
were returning from their labour, 
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Two Ordinary People 

He joined Himself to Cleopas 
and his friends; and, when the 
darkness had fallen and the doors 
were shut, He appeared unto the 
company of the disciples. He 
showed Himself in Joseph's 
garden, and also in the garden 
of Gethsemane, upon a highroad 
and in the upper room. Once He 
rewarded love, once He absolved 
penitence, once He enlightened 
darkness, once He came to con- 
fer grace upon His Church; but 
the interview which is described 
most carefully and tenderly is 
that which the Master had with 
the travellers to Emmaus. 

Our Master has a warm place 
in His heart for ordinary people. 
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Two Ordinary People 

When Jesus seeks out two 
disciples on Easter Day, and 
Himself expounds to them the 
Scriptures, journeying with them 
upon the road and entering into 
their homes, it is natural for us 
to take for granted that they 
must be distinguished persons 
in the Church, and to be curious 
about their history. There have 
been many attempts to identify 
Cleopas, and to put a name upon 
his friend; but they have all 
come to nothing, for the only 
thing we know about the former 
is that we must not suppose him 
to be the same person as the 
Cleopas whose wife stood at the 
Cross, because, although the 
words are the same in our Eng- 
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Two Ordinary People 

lish Bible — the Cleopas of St. 
John's Gospel and this Cleopas of 
St. Luke's — they are not the same 
in the original. And as regards 
his friend, no one can hope to 
lift the curtain which hides him 
from our recognition. 

They appear, those two, for 
the first time upon the highroad 
where any one can travel, and 
they disappear when the incident 
closes; they have no claim on 
fame; they are two unknown 
men, who were not apostles nor 
chief saints, who had never done 
any great thing except once 
constrained the Lord to abide, 
and who never passed through 
any great emotion except once, 
when their hearts burned within 
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Two Ordinary People 

them listening to the Saviour. 
They represent not the aristoc- 
racy of the Church, who have 
preached the gospel to the na- 
tion, or ruled the house of God, 
or won the martyr's crown, or 
opened the mystery of the faith 
unto their brethren. They are 
two of the multitude which make 
up the body of the Church, 
and it is comforting to know 
that Christ had a thought of 
them when He rose from the 
dead. 

After all, there are not many 
distinguished people, famous by 
their talents and services; the 
enormous majority of us are 
commonplace and obscure. As 
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Two Ordinary People 

the race passes before our eyes 
across the stage of history, how 
few we recognise! — a poet, a 
prophet, an explorer, a con- 
queror; and the rest, they were 
born and lived, and did their 
duty and died. Among all the 
people in our city or our country, 
there may not be one whose name 
will be known a hundred years 
hence, and the great person of 
our little circle has not been 
heard of a mile away. 

There are times when we ordi- 
nary folk are discouraged be- 
cause our life is so limited and 
our sky so grey, but we ought to 
remind ourselves that we are not 
forgotten of God, and we ought 
not to complain if we are loved 
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Two Ordinary People 

by even one person. We may- 
be lost in the crowd and seem 
to be nothing; but in our homes 
we are everything, and it does 
not matter so very much that 
our name will be unknown to 
future generations if it be 
mentioned with affection by two 
or three people to-day. 

As you travel on the railroad, 
you pity some countryman who 
is a fellow-passenger, because he 
has seen so little and has so few 
things to think about, has such 
a difficulty in speech, and is so 
unattractive in appearance. i A 
poverty-stricken life,' you say to 
yourself; ' a dull, insensible 
soul/ Wait a moment, and you 
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Two Ordinary People 

will correct your judgment; for 
now the train begins to slow and 
tlie countryman's face begins to 
brighten. He looks out at the 
window, and marks the familiar 
landscape; he is coming near 
his home, and is thinking of 
them who are waiting for him. 
A woman and two children are 
standing on the platform; they 
wave their hands to him as the 
train comes in, and he, as best he 
can, responds. 

As he leaves the train, which 
is a foreign place to him, you 
hear his wife call him by his 
Christian name, and the accent 
of her voice glorifies the word, 
for it testifies to his faithfulness 
and to her love, and the children 
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Two Ordinary People 

take him round the neck; and 
it is with another thought of 
him and of his life that you 
follow the little group going 
down the road till amid the 
hedge-rows they are lost to 
sight. Somewhere among the 
greenery this labouring man has 
a home; and there in his three 
rooms, with his little garden and 
simple possessions, with his wife 
and children, he is content. 

Love dignifies and satisfies the 
heart as rank and riches and 
learning and achievements can 
never do, and the chief love of 
human experience is the love 
of Jesus Christ. Does it matter 
much that our names are un- 
known to men, if they be known 
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Two Ordinary People 

to the Lord; that they shall 
have no place in history, if they 
be written in the Lamb's book 
of life; that no one recognises 
our faces as we trudge along our 
way, if the risen Lord, who has 
the worship of the heavenly 
hosts, should join us on the road 
and keep us company? 

Ordinary people are glorified 
by a spiritual passion. Cleopas 
and his friend were two country 
folk who worked hard for their 
living, and were bowed down 
with toil, and were poorly 
dressed, and had most likely un- 
lovely manners. Yesterday one 
had passed them without no- 
tice as if they had been sheep, but 
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Two Ordinary People 

to-day they demand attention 
from any one who has an eye 
and a heart. They are afflicted 
by such sorrow that it shows 
itself in their carriage, and has 
given another expression to their 
faces. They have found speech 
who used to travel in silence, 
and are so absorbed with their 
grief, whatever it may be, that 
they have no thought for other 
travellers. 

No one is commonplace when 
he is touched by an unselfish 
emotion; for he is raised above 
himself, and commands your 
respect and admiration. The 
stupidest man who ever lived, 
sorrowing for his dead wife; 
the vagrant of the highways, 
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Two Ordinary People 

bending over her sick child; 
the street arab of the city, for- 
getting his rags to rejoice in his 
country's victory; the criminal 
breaking down as he bids his 
mother good-bye, may not be 
despised. The simplest emotion 
elevates the humblest, but the 
passion of religion glorifies it. 

When a Highland shepherd 
spends the night upon the moor 
wrestling in prayer to assure 
himself of God, he is greater 
than kings upon the throne and 
philosophers in their studies. 
And, when these two men went 
down from Jerusalem to Emmaus 
heart-broken, not because they 
had lost gold or silver or even 
earthly friends, but because they 
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Two Ordinary People 

had lost their Lord, ' who should 
have redeemed Israel,' then are 
they lifted above the circum- 
stances of their lives and the 
narrowness of their minds. They 
take spiritual rank before Ga- 
maliel, who with all his learning 
was not wise enough to recognise 
the Lord ; and before the priests, 
who knew not what to do with 
Christ except to crucify Him; 
and before the mighty procurator 
of Judaea, who had not courage 
enough to do justice. 

Jesus comforted His disciples 
by ordinary means. It was like 
the Lord to seek out those who 
missed Him and to satisfy those 
who desired Him, but His 
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Two Ordinary People 

method of revelation seems at 
first sight strange and slow. 
Why did He not say, ' Cleopas,' 
with that sound of love in the 
word that would have opened 
the eyes of His true friend? So 
in a moment their sorrow had 
been turned into joy. Why, 
instead thereof, did He turn to 
the Scriptures of the Old Testa- 
ment, and spend the time in 
exposition which might have 
been used in revelation? Why 
delay the revelation so long and 
require so elaborate a prepara- 
tion for its climax? 

Because the Master was think- 
ing not only of that day, but of 
the days that were to come in the 
life of Cleopas and his friend, 
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Two Ordinary People 

and also of the disciples who 
were to follow in future ages. It 
was not enough to captivate the 
senses of the two companions by 
a physical manifestation; it was 
necessary to convince their rea- 
son by a lasting proof; not 
enough to show that having 
suffered He had risen, but to 
make plain that it was becoming 
He should suffer, and certain 
that, if He accepted the cross, 
He would receive the crown. 
For this end Jesus took His 
disciples a long way back, and 
brought them by the way of 
Moses and the law, of Isaiah and 
the gospel, to the Cross of Cal- 
vary, showing them that all 
things which had happened at 
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Two Ordinary People 

Jerusalem were in the purpose of 
God, and were the terminus of a 
long history. 

Jesus did not dazzle their eyes ; 
He carried their reason, and 
therefore, if at any time to come 
wise people should say unto 
Cleopas that he had only 
dreamed, and imagined he saw 
the Lord, whom he wished to 
see, then the disciple would 
rest himself on the argument 
of the Old Testament, and call 
in Moses and the prophets to 
establish his faith. And, if the 
disciple of to-day, coming down 
from his Jerusalem in despair 
of faith, complains that there is 
no Lord to meet him on the way, 
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Two Ordinary People 

and comfort his heart, the Master, 
who is not far off nor unmindful 
of him, bids him open a yet 
richer Bible than Moses and the 
prophets, and therein discover 
the reason for Christ's death and 
the assurance that Christ has 
risen. And, if the Master ex- 
pounds not to our ears the Holy 
Scriptures, He opens them to the 
heart by His Spirit, and every 
generation is sent to the written 
word which is the testimony of 
the Lord. 

When ordinary people obtain 
a revelation it is their wisdom to 
make the most of it. The owner 
of a gallery may enjoy the pic- 
tures at his leisure, but the 
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Two Ordinary People 

visitor of an hour must make 
good use of his time. The 
volumes of a great library show 
little sign of usage, but the poor 
man's twenty books are thin with 
handling. The man who has 
never worked knows not how to 
keep holiday, but the toiler uses 
every moment of his time of rest. 
"When heaven is ever open to 
elect souls they need not make 
haste, but if one only gets a 
glimpse now and again, he must 
seize his opportunity with all 
his might. Never before had 
Cleopas travelled in such com- 
pany; when would he be fa- 
voured after this fashion again? 
He glanced at his friend and his 
friend at him, and they saw the 
[102] 



Two Ordinary People 

same desire in one another's 
eyes. They were on the threshold 
of an unspeakable blessing, and 
it will not be their blame if they 
do not possess it. They have 
come to their destination, and 
the stranger makes as though He 
would bid them good-bye and go 
on His way down the darkening 
road. But if that were His in- 
tention, He had not counted on 
Cleopas and his friend, nor had 
He considered what He Himself 
had done. If He must go on 
His way, He ought not to have 
joined Himself to those two men 
and caused their hearts to burn, 
and lifted their hopes, and 
brought them to the height of 
expectation. He ought not to 
[103] 



Two Ordinary People 

have done so much unless He 
was going to do more; and, at 
any rate, whatever be the Mas- 
ter's mind, the mind of the two 
disciples is clear and fixed. It 
must be in spite of them that 
Jesus will escape from Emmaus 
that evening. And now, as 
in Angelico's beautiful picture, 
Cleopas has arrested Jesus by 
his pilgrim staff, and his friend 
has laid hold of the Master's 
arm. They are no longer dis- 
heartened and listless, they are 
now two determined men who may 
not be trifled with nor put aside. 
The shadows are falling fast; 
why should this traveller pursue 
His journey? He must rest 
somewhere; why not in Cleopas 's 
[104] 



Two Ordinary People 

house? It is a little home, 
but there is room for this 
stranger; they have not much 
to offer, but all they have shall 
be His. Never had our Lord a 
sadder experience than when He 
called and no man regarded, 
than when he knocked and no 
man opened; never had He a 
gladder heart than on that night 
when two obscure men stood in 
the highroad, so that He could 
not pass them, and with the 
violence of love compelled Him 
to be their guest. He remained 
who had desired nothing more 
than this invitation; He was 
helpless in their hands who 
was most willing to be van- 
quished. 

[105] 



Two Ordinary People 

When vision comes to ordinary 
people it is the outcome of their 
past experience. It is open for 
any one to say that the bread 
which Jesus blessed, and in which 
He revealed Himself, was the 
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 
but it is quite as likely that it 
was their evening meal. And if 
it were so, one comes to under- 
stand how they recognised Jesus 
in the breaking of the bread. 
Although they were not apostles, 
and were not Jesus 's intimates, 
yet they had been His disciples, 
and must often have been in His 
company. They had journeyed 
with Him along the Galilean 
roads, and at mid-day had sat 
down upon the ground when 
[106] 



Two Ordinary People 

Jesus gave the barley bread to 
His disciples. Their place would 
be on the outer circle, far away 
from John and Peter, but on that 
very account, because they were 
not so near the Lord, they would 
watch Him the more closely, as 
poor people in the back seats of 
churches have often a keener 
interest in their minister than 
those with whom he is ever 
mixing. They knew how Jesus 
looked on such an occasion — the 
turn of His hands, the attitude 
of His body, the expression of 
His eyes, with little touches 
which they had often mentioned 
to one another as they followed 
the Lord at a distance, but 
carried Him in their hearts. 
[107] 



Two Ordinary People 

Although they did not suspect it, 
their unassuming and unaffected 
devotion had not been unnoticed 
of the Lord, and it was not to go 
without its due reward. They 
had been two out of many once, 
to-night they would be two with 
Jesus alone. They had stood 
afar in their humility, they 
would be brought very near 
to-night. The day will come, 
and may come suddenly, to the 
honest, modest disciple, when his 
patient obedience in the little 
things of life, and his faithful 
affection from a distance, and 
his frequent tender thoughts of 
the Lord, like fuel gathered 
and treasured in his soul, will 
suddenly be touched, as by the 
[108] 



Two Ordinary People 

Spirit of the Lord, and blaze into 
light, and in the light thereof he 
will see the Lord's face. Because 
the two had loved the Lord so 
kindly, and had watched Him 
in days gone by, He was known 
to them that evening in the 
breaking of bread. 

Vision is for the moment, but 
the light thereof transforms the 
ordinary life. No sooner had the 
Lord been recognised than He 
vanished from their sight, but 
though the appearance was only 
for a moment the power thereof 
was for life. They rose and re- 
turned to Jerusalem, but not the 
same men nor by the same road, 
for now all things had been made 
[1091 



Two Ordinary People 

new for them both within and 
without. Life has another colour 
and another end because it has 
another hope, when we know for 
a certainty that the Lord has 
risen from the dead. We are as- 
sured of another world of the 
blessed departed, of the immortal 
soul, of the victory of holiness. 
We go on our way to common- 
place duties and varied trials, 
but we are encompassed with a 
cloud of witnesses; we are rein- 
forced by heavenly grace, we 
travel beneath an open heaven, 
we see our Lord at the right hand 
of God. Our faces are now set 
steadfastly to go up to Jerusa- 
lem, not to the sorrow of the 
cross, which is over, but to the 
[110] 



Two Ordinary People 

glory of the victory which Christ 
has achieved; and as each one 
comes to his brethren with the 
joy of his own vision, his testi- 
mony is drowned in the voice of 
the whole company of the disci- 
ples, declaring, before he can 
speak, that the Lord is risen 
indeed. 



[HI] 



W&t Company of Mutiplts 



THE COMPANY OF DISCIPLES 

It is a pleasant argument where 
the Church of Christ was born, 
and various places contend for 
this honour. There is the Moun- 
tain in Galilee where the Lord 
laid down the conditions of His 
kingdom; there is the lake 
side where He wrought His 
works of mercy; there is the 
Cross where He achieved His 
victory; there is Pentecost when 
He came in power. But it is 
[115] 



The Company of Disciples 

open to hold that the Church of 
the New Testament began her 
history when, at the close of 
Easter Day, the apostles and 
those with them gathered in the 
upper room and, the doors being 
shut, the Lord appeared and be- 
stowed upon them His peace 
and His Spirit. 

During the day He had 
appeared to one and another, 
enlightening their darkness, and 
filling them with gladness, and 
so He had been preparing for the 
revelation of the evening. It is 
His habit first to inflame the 
hearts of a few, and then, when 
the Church is in a state of ex- 
pectation, to declare Himself 
unto the body of His people. 
[116] 



The Company of Disciples 

When Peter and Cleopas have 
been comforted and know that 
1 He is risen indeed,' when they 
have borne their testimony and 
spread their hope among the 
brethren, then of a sudden the 
Lord appears. And the sign 
which He gave on that first 
night, and always gives, the con- 
vincing and final proof of His 
identity, is the sign of the Pas- 
sion. He shows nnto His disci- 
ples His hands and His feet. 

As a river carries with it to 
the sea the character of its birth- 
place — green, because it sprang 
from a glacier and has been fed 
from the slopes of snow; or clear, 
because it flowed from a lake and 
has received the waters of many 
[117] 



The Company of Disciples 

a mountain stream, so the Church 
of Christ bears the mark of her 
Lord. As Judaism has been a 
standing monument to the spirit 
of the Prophet of Sinai, so the 
Christian Church, when she is 
true to herself, is the very incar- 
nation of her Lord. According 
to sight, Jesus may have lived 
barely thirty-three years in this 
world; but, according to faith, 
after nineteen centuries He is the 
chief force in human life, through 
His body, which is the Church; 
and any one can recognise that 
body, because of the nail-prints 
on the hands and feet. 

By the sign of His hands and 
His feet the Lord called His 
[118] 



The Company of Disciples 

Church to be the witness to His 
Passion. It is the duty of His 
disciples to make known every- 
where the law of the Lord, who 
is the chief Prophet of God, and 
the life of the Lord, who is the 
type of holiness, but the Church 
has failed and missed the heart 
of the mystery of Christ if she 
does not represent Him as the 
Crucified. What distinguished 
Him from every other teacher 
which the world has received 
from God is that He not only 
declared God by His word and 
by His life, but that He also rec- 
onciles us to God by His Cross 
and by His death. He is more 
than teacher, He is also Saviour, 
and the Christ on whom the 
[119] 



The Company of Disciples 

wounds are hidden may on the 
first sight of Him be more 
attractive to flesh and blood, 
because there is in Him nothing 
to pain or offend us, but He is 
not the Christ of the Gospels 
nor the power of God. He may 
have loved us, but not unto the 
bitterness of Gethsemane; He 
may instruct us, He cannot re- 
inforce us; He may delight 
us, He cannot redeem us. The 
Cross was not a lamentable in- 
cident in the life of Jesus, to be 
regretted and forgotten; it was 
the end for which He came into 
the world, it was the work 
which He had to do. When He 
had died upon that Cross He had 
not done with it, and when He 
[120] 



The Company of Disciples 

rose from the dead He did not 
forget it. No sooner had His 
executioner taken down the two 
beams of wood and removed the 
traces of the Crucifixion from 
the hill called Calvary, than Jesus 
set up that Cross for ever on the 
hill of Sion and placed it in the 
heart of the Church. The print 
of the nails and the hollow of 
the spear were taken up into 
the body of His glory and are 
continued there for ever. From 
the circle of Calvary the Church 
cannot depart without leaving 
her Lord and denying that she 
had ever known Him. There is 
not one of her doctrines which 
does not bear in its warp and 
woof the red thread of Christ's 
[121] 



The Company of Disciples 

sacrifice. Her two beautiful 
Sacraments are both the picture 
of His death; Baptism, wherein 
we are cleansed by His blood; 
and the Lord's Supper, wherein 
we are fed by His broken body. 
The disciples cannot meet for 
worship without offering their 
prayers, through the intercession 
of their great High Priest, who 
has carried His sacrifice within 
the veil, and they cannot escape 
the hymns of the Cross in their 
praise to God. When the hearts 
of the disciples have grown cold 
and their minds shallow, they 
have covered the signs of the 
Passion, casting the Cross from 
out of their doctrine, and erasing 
it from their hymns, and then 
[122] 



The Company of Disciples 

the Church has ceased to be the 
body of Christ and has been 
ready to perish. False Christs 
also have appeared among the 
disciples and have claimed to be 
the Master, speaking words of 
human wisdom and prophesying 
smooth things; but they have 
always been detected and re- 
fused, for when He cometh there 
is no mistaking Jesus, and where 
He dwelleth there is no mistak- 
ing the Church, for the sign of 
the Lord and of His Church is 
the same, the wound-prints on the 
hands and feet. 

By His wounds the Lord also 
baptizes the Church into His sym- 
pathy. It is something which 
[123] 



The Company of Disciples 

ought ever to be remembered and 
insisted upon, that the Christian 
Church was not founded by 
one who was learned or rich, 
or honoured or successful, for 
then she would have been the 
home for wise and great people, 
and would have had no place for 
the poor and the suffering. Her 
Lord passed through the lowest 
depths of privation and humilia- 
tion, till it came to pass that no 
one could be poorer and no one 
worse used, and so His Church 
is the refuge for those who are 
broken-hearted and have failed 
through their sins or through 
their sorrows. When Christianity 
becomes high and mighty, when 
she forms alliances with the 
[124] 



The Company of Disciples 

world and is increased in goods, 
when she despises the meek and 
the humble, when she is hard 
and merciless, then has she 
denied her Lord and herself, and 
lost the print of the nails. The 
labouring and the heavy laden, 
the outcast, and the penitent 
came to Jesus as to a friend, 
and after the same fashion, and 
with the same confidence, they 
ought to come to His Church, 
and they should receive from her 
the same welcome as from the 
Lord. By her tenderness the 
Church is to be distinguished 
from all other bodies on the 
face of the earth, because, having 
been baptized into the Passion 
of the Lord, she carries for ever 
[125] 



The Company of Disciples 

His heart of love. Her preach- 
ing must be tried by this test, 
not is it eloquent or profound, 
but does it comfort, breaking 
not the bruised reed, quench- 
ing not the smoking flax, putting 
strength in them who were ready 
to die, and lifting up those who 
were cast down. Her operations 
must be judged, not by their 
worldly size and success, by 
numbers and noise and wealth, 
but by their spirit of quiet- 
ness and gentleness. And this 
must ever be a chief condition 
of her fellowship, that the proud 
and the self-righteous have no 
entrance, but that the door be 
ever open for the widow of Nain 
and Zaccheus the publican, and 
[126] 



The Company of Disciples 

the woman who was a sinner, 
and the penitent thief. And the 
signs of their encouragement 
shall be this — the marks on the 
hands and feet. 

By His wounds the Lord calls 
His Church to austerity of life. 
There is no master so gentle or 
so severe as Jesus, for He gives 
the most generous invitation and 
the kindliest welcome when we 
come to Him; He lays us on 
the hardest service and demands 
of us the hardest sacrifices after 
we have come. ' Peace be unto 
you,' He said that night to the 
disciples, and He breathed upon 
them that they might receive His 
spirit; but before James lay a 
[127] 



The Company of Disciples 

speedy martyrdom, and before 
John a lonely exile, before them 
all bonds and sufferings. For 
Christ hath two words of power : 
one is ' come,' which draws us 
to His side, where there is peace 
for evermore; and the other is 
i follow,' which draws us after 
Him, where He carries His Cross 
in the paths of life. The wounds 
of Christ are first of all the hope 
and hiding-place of the soul; 
afterwards they turn into the 
soul's standard and obligation. 
As there is a false Christianity 
which banishes the Cross from 
thought, there is another which 
banishes the Cross from life, and 
as the one makes no distinction 
between Jesus and other teachers, 
[128] 



The Company of Disciples 

save His deeper wisdom and Hig 
higher goodness, so the latter 
does not separate the Christian 
life from the world life, except 
in a finer degree of purity and of 
charity; but the true Christian- 
ity, which has made the sacrifice 
of Christ its distinctive principle 
of thought, makes the same 
sacrifice its rule of life. It does 
not pretend that it is easy to 
follow Christ, or that the Cross 
is light to carry, but rather 
teaches that the Christian must 
be prepared upon occasion to 
pluck out the right eye and cut 
off the right hand, to hate father 
and mother, to sell all that he 
has, to part from all whom he 
loves, to do work which he dis- 
[129] 



The Company of Disciples 

likes, to associate with unattract- 
ive people, to deny himself in 
heart and life, in his reason also 
and in his affections, even as 
Christ Himself did, and for the 
same cause : the love of God and 
the love of man. So the Church 
comes to carry the print of the 
nails upon her hands and her 
feet, and the world knows that 
she is the Body of Christ. 

And by His wounds Christ 
assures the Church of victory. 
Art has been the devout hand- 
maid of faith, but art once did 
faith an injury when she accus- 
tomed the Christian mind to the 
sight of Christ upon the crucifix 
— emaciated, worn out, bleeding, 
[130] 



The Company of Disciples 

dying. He did suffer and He 
did die, but His physical passion 
ceased with His death, and when 
He rose from the dead His 
wounds remained, but they were 
healed never again to open; they 
continued in sign upon His body, 
but they were the signs of His 
power. The truest Christ is that 
of an ancient gem, wherein the 
Lord alive for evermore rests on 
His Cross as one upon a throne, 
crucified, yet risen, once suffering, 
now glorified; or in that fine 
conception of Burne- Jones's, 
wherein a young and beautiful 
Christ is set with outstretched 
arms upon the Tree of Life in the 
Garden of Eden, while the human 
race is represented by Adam and 
[131] 



The Company of Disciples 

Eve, who stand on either side. 
This is the Christ of the Resur- 
rection Day and of the Christian 
faith. His Passion now is not 
the evidence of defeat, but is the 
pledge of victory, for behold if 
He died, a sacrifice for our sins, 
by His rising again He has been 
accepted of God. If he humbled 
Himself unto the death of the 
Cross, He has obtained a name 
which is above every name. For 
His Church He died, and with 
Him the Church is living; for 
His Church He rose, and 
with Him the Church also rises; 
for the Church He reigns, and 
with Him the Church also reigns. 
There is no power in heaven or 
earth like unto the Cross, for it 
[132] 



The Company of Disciples 

has beaten down sin and estab- 
lished righteousness ; it has given 
Christ His crown in heaven and 
on earth the hearts of men, and 
unto every one who bears in him 
the marks of the Lord Jesus 
the Cross is the pledge of ever- 
lasting life. When Christ showed 
unto His disciples on the evening 
of Easter Day the marks on His 
hands and feet, He declared 
Himself the Son of God and 
the Lord of Glory, and they who 
are willing to have the same 
marks printed upon them become 
partakers of His victorious 
immortality. 



[133] 



©tie iLorb's Protfjer 



VI 

THE LORD'S BROTHER 

Amostg the trials of Jesus there 
is one which we often forget and 
whose keenness we have never 
appreciated, and that is the 
tragedy of His home life. It is 
natural that we should set a 
special value upon the judgment 
of those with whom we live and 
who are bound to us by the most 
intimate ties. If they believe in 
us it matters little that the outer 
world disbelieves; what does 
it know? If they condemn us, 

[137] 



The Lord's Brother 

can the outer world justify us? 
do not they know best? Would 
not Christ's joy in the faith of 
Peter the fisherman and Nico- 
demus the Pharisee, and Mary of 
Bethany, the Saint, and that 
Eoman Centurion of Capernaum, 
be shadowed by the remembrance 
that His brother James was an 
unbeliever? Would not the hos- 
tility of the Pharisees, and the 
persecution of the priests, and 
the injustice of the Eomans, and 
the rejection of the people have 
been more easily borne if their 
enmity had not been sanctioned 
by the unbelief of His brother? 
What a stumbling-block it must 
have been to Jesus' friends, and 
what a handle to His enemies, 
[138] 



The Lord's Brother 

that a man who had known Him 
from childhood, and had seen His 
private life, refused to accept His 
claim or to become His follower. 
Possibly the cruelest moment in 
Jesus' life, except the agony in 
Gethsemane, was that scene in 
Galilee when the Master was at 
the height of His popularity, and 
James came down from Nazareth 
bringing with him, alas ! the Vir- 
gin herself, and they proposed 
to take Jesus away and seclude 
Him for His own sake and theirs 
at home, as one who had lost con- 
trol of Himself, and was bring- 
ing a scandal upon the family. It 
was then that Jesus, profoundly 
wounded, declared that the ties 
were closer between Him and 
[139] 



The Lord's Beotheb, 

His disciples than with His own 
house. ' Who is My mother? ' 
He cried in hearing of the people, 
' or My brethren? Behold,' He 
said, looking round on the little 
company of His friends, ' Behold 
My mother and My brethren, for 
whosoever shall do the will of 
God, the same is My brother and 
My sister, and My mother. ' 

No unkindness or disloyalty 
could chill the heart of Jesus or 
break those bonds with James 
which might not be of blood (for 
James was almost certainly the 
son of Joseph by a former wife,) 
but were those at least of home. 
Jesus did not despair of His 
brother's conversion and could 
not endure that James should be 
[140] 



The Lord's Brother 

finally impenitent. What had 
not been done before His death 
would be accomplished by His 
resurrection, and if James had 
once put Him to shame by that 
visit in Galilee, He also would 
visit James and fill him with joy 
for ever. And so the Lord ' was 
seen of James.' 

Nearness to goodness may not 
always convert. We are accus- 
tomed to pity those who through 
the moral poverty of their homes 
have to go abroad and depend 
upon a distant view of goodness ; 
we envy those who live at home 
with goodness and see it incarnate 
in a husband or a wife, a child or 
a brother. Such fortunate people 
[141] 



The Lord's Brother 

hardly need a Gospel, for it has 
been acted before their eyes, and 
they have been drawn, before 
they knew, into the Kingdom of 
God. No preacher we say is like 
a godly father, and none has done 
so great a work as a Christian 
mother. But if it should come 
to pass that the goodness which 
has so affected the outer world 
leaves those within its circle un- 
touched and unredeemed, then 
are we apt to suspect its reality, 
or at least to conclude that it has 
had some serious flaw. Is there 
not a flaw in our own reasoning, 
and is not our axiom a fallacy? 
Do we appreciate a picture best 
with our face to the canvas? 
have we not to stand at a 
[142] 



The Lord's Brother 

distance and at a certain angle 
before we catch its beauty? Do 
the people who live at the base 
of a famous mountain realise its 
grandeur? are they not rather 
overshadowed by its greatness? 
Is it not a disability of our hu- 
man nature to grow accustomed to 
moral excellence, when we see it 
from morning till night amid all 
the petty details and repeated 
commonplaces of daily life? Has 
it not required death to reveal 
to many a man, and he not a bad 
man, the Christ-like goodness 
with which he lived for a genera- 
tion, so that when it was removed 
from him he did homage with 
tears of vain regret to that which 
he might have seen by his side? 
[143] 



The Lord's Brother 

James had lived in the same 
house at first, and afterwards 
near by in the same little village, 
with the young child whom 
Simeon blessed, and the shep- 
herds worshipped, with the lad 
who asked questions of the doc- 
tors, and who was obedient to His 
parents, with the young man 
whom John Baptist recognised as 
the Lamb of God, and St. John 
the Divine accepted as his Lord; 
and instead of being convinced 
and won, so that Jesus could find 
His first disciple within His own 
family, all the world knew that, 
whoever believed in our Lord, 
James His brother did not. 
Ought not this unbelief of James 
to be some comfort to good peo- 
[144] 



The Lord's Brother 

pie who are distressed because 
their children are not religious, 
and who are inclined in their mod- 
esty to blame themselves, for who 
is so faultless as the Lord, who 
so determined in his unbelief as 
James? Ought not this painful 
incident of Jesus' private life 
teach us charity and hinder us 
from censuring without better 
reason public servants of God, 
because they have converted 
strangers to Christ, but have not 
yet brought their own family to 
His feet? It does not follow 
they have been careless of their 
own, or that they are actors be- 
fore the public, for neither did 
James His brother believe in the 
Lord. 

[145] 



The Lord's Brother 

Prejudice may blind the soul 
worse than evil living. We may 
be provoked to do injustice to 
James, and it is therefore good to 
remind ourselves that James was 
not an immoral man who had an 
ill will to Jesus and hardened 
himself because the goodness of 
his brother was his own rebuke 
and condemnation. As one learns 
from his after life, wherein he 
earned the title of ' The Just/ 
the Lord's brother was a man 
of austere character and belonged 
to the strictest sect of the Jews. 
His temperament did not make 
him the easier but the harder 
subject for the grace of Jesus, 
since the deepest cleavage in a 
family is not made by faults but 
[146] ' 



The Lord's Brother 

by creed, so that two sisters in 
the same family will be further 
apart if they belong to different 
parties in one Church than if one 
were a saint and the other were 
a child of pleasure, and a pious 
woman will sometimes be more 
agreeable to her husband if he 
be a thorough-going man of the 
world than if he be religious and 
belong to another Church. No 
one would have done more gen- 
erous homage to Jesus' good- 
ness than James if He had 
belonged to his own sect, and 
especially if Jesus had not taken 
up His public position. James 
was waiting for the Messiah of 
God and had settled in his own 
mind what like the Messiah would 
[147] 



The Lord's Brother 

be, and when a Messiah of this 
appearance declared Himself He 
would find in James a loyal serv- 
ant. What filled the soul of 
this clean-living and righteous 
man with horror was the amaz- 
ing claim of his younger brother. 
That Jesus whom he had taken 
care of as a child, whom he had 
taught to saw and plane, whom 
he had eaten and drunk with in 
their little home, and who had 
lived for thirty years a quiet, 
God-fearing life, should announce 
Himself in His own village syna- 
gogue as the Messiah of the 
Prophets, and allow people to 
treat Him as the Promised One 
throughout Galilee, was to James 
a blasphemy and a scandal. It 
[148] 



The Lord's Brother 

was not possible for him to rea- 
son about this madness. If he 
had had his way it would have 
been brought to an end by force 
for the sake of the family, and 
for Jesus' sake, and it was this 
thick veil of Jewish dogma which 
hid the glory of our Lord from 
His brother James. 

Our duty to the public does not 
absolve us from our duty to our 
own home. Jesus did not die 
upon the Cross nor rise from the 
dead as a private person, but as 
the head of the human race and 
the Saviour of the world. Before 
Him lay, after His resurrection, 
the chief work of the ages, to 
reap the fruits of His victory, 
[149] 



The Lord's Brother 

and to redeem the Church which 
God had given to Him, and for 
which He had shed His blood. 
Private ties of blood and of home 
which He had faithfully observed 
in His past life were loosed as 
He entered on His heavenly and 
eternal service, so that the dear- 
est friends of the past must now 
think of Him, not as the man 
whom they had known in the 
intimacy of human fellowship, 
but as the Son of God and their 
Eedeemer. Yet He could not 
close that past nor begin the 
service of intercession within the 
heavenly places till that man 
(and with him, we gather, His 
other brethren) who was the son 
of Joseph, and had lived a godly 
[150] 



The Lord's Brother 

life according to his light in Naz- 
areth, had seen His salvation. It 
were not becoming that Joseph's 
son and His kinsman should be 
among the unbelieving and un- 
saved, and Jesus, who had taken 
the burden f romPeter 's conscience 
and enlightened the darkness of 
Cleopas, met alone with James 
and at last won the heart and mind 
of that honest, obstinate man. 
The anxious solicitude of Jesus 
for His brother's salvation and 
the private efforts which He made 
are a rebuke unto those who are 
ever preaching charity abroad, 
but whose evil temper is a scourge 
at home; who are telling poor 
people how to make their houses 
clean and fair, but who care not 
[151] 



The Lord's Brother 

for the comfort of their own 
homes ; and, above all, those who, 
whether pastors or teachers or 
witnesses in any shape to the 
Gospel of Jesus, are inviting 
strangers to the Great Feast of 
God, but have not yet pleaded 
with their own family that they 
should come, as Jesus did with 
His brother James. 

An honest bigot makes a good 
servant. James refused to believe 
in his brother Jesus as the 
Messiah, because there seemed 
no sufficient evidence for so 
august and awful a claim, and 
the death of Jesus upon the 
Cross, while it no doubt grieved 
James, would only confirm his 
[152] 



The Lord's Brother 

unbelief. Nothing, as the Lord 
knew, would change this stub- 
born and simple-minded man 
except an irresistible proof, but 
if that were given it would be 
at once accepted, and Jesus dealt 
with His brother as afterwards 
He was to deal with Saul at 
Tarsus. He let the light of the 
resurrection fall upon His life 
and death. James had con- 
sidered Jesus, not to be an 
impostor possibly, as the Jews 
did, but rather a self-deluded 
man, carried away by enthusiasm 
— the victim of an ill-balanced 
mind, and he had been obliged 
to accept the lamentable tragedy 
of Calvary as the natural issue 
of Jesus' action. It would be 
[153] 



The Lord's Brother 

according to James the judgment 
of God as well as the judgment 
of man, and he could only leave 
Jesus to the pity of the Almighty. 
If God raised Jesus from the 
dead after an open and marvel- 
lous fashion, then he would have 
to reverse his conclusion, for the 
man whom God treated after this 
fashion must be the Messiah, 
sealed with the approval and 
acquitted in the judgment of 
the Eternal. When the Lord 
appeared to James, showing to 
him also His hands and His feet, 
and expounding to him all that the 
Scriptures had said about the 
Messiah, James would pass at 
once without hesitation and with- 
out reserve from unbelief to faith. 
[154] 



The Lord's Brother 

With him there never could be 
any indifference or lukewarm- 
ness, and as once he denied his 
brother in spite of family affec- 
tion and pride, now he would own 
and serve Him in spite of his 
fellow-countrymen and the whole 
world. It is the man of convic- 
tion who deserves our respect 
and is worth the winning: the 
elder brother converted will be 
more than twenty prodigals re- 
turned. James, who had openly 
disbelieved in his brother, came 
at last to write himself with 
proud humility, ' a servant of 
God and of the Lord Jesus 
Christ,' and to appeal to his fel- 
low Christians by the i faith of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord 
[155] 



The Lord's Brother 

of Glory.' And he who once 
would have laid hands upon his 
brother to restrain Him from the 
work of God, became the valiant 
chief shepherd of the Church in 
Jerusalem, and according to 
ancient history died a martyr 
for the Lord's sake, praying as 
he died, ' Lord God my Fa- 
ther, I beseech Thee forgive 
them, for they know not what 
they do ! ' And the inscription 
which the Christians placed 
upon his monument was this — 
4 He hath been a true witness 
both to Jews and Greeks that 
Jesus is the Christ/ 



[156] 



Cfjomas tfje ©oubter 



VII 

THOMAS THE DOUBTER 

The first disciples of Jesus were 
for the most part simple-minded 
and ingenuous men, but there 
was one of complex nature. The 
character of Thomas could not 
be read like the page of an open 
book, and he was always liable 
to be misunderstood; he seemed, 
indeed, a contradiction in quali- 
ties, and he was often as two 
men unto himself. With every 
one of us the reason and the 
[159] 



Thomas the Doubter 

heart have occasional conflicts; 
in this man's nature they sus- 
tained an undying feud. In the 
province of his emotions he was 
devoted to a single person, whom 
he loved with all his strength, 
and in all circumstances, and 
unto all time; in that person he 
could see nothing but good; 
from Him he would not be 
separated, for Him he would 
do anything. Upon one side of 
his nature he was the blind, 
unquestioning, rejoicing slave 
of love. Within the province of 
the intellect Thomas was calm, 
cold, critical, suspicious of the 
faith which is swayed by love, 
refusing to believe that anything 
is true because he wishes it so, 
[160] 



Thomas the Doubter 

demanding the strongest evi- 
dence for religion, and searching 
it with severity. Upon the in- 
tellectual side he is the type 
of honest, thorough, relentless 
criticism. 

Thomas may be charged with a 
certain foolishness of love, who 
desired to die with Christ, though 
his death could be of no service ; 
he might be charged with a cer- 
tain extremity of scepticism, who 
demanded unreasonable evidence ; 
but there is one charge which 
never can be brought against this 
disciple — he was never shallow 
nor insincere, either in his love 
or in his doubt. If he loved his 
Master with the loyalty of a 
[161] 



Thomas the Doubter 

dumb, unreasoning animal, he 
loved Him all the more when his 
Master was dead ; and if he hesi- 
tated to receive Christ's teach- 
ing on the unseen world when his 
Master was with him, he was 
ten times more cautious when 
his Master's lips were sealed in 
death. 

During the resurrection days 
Thomas outdid himself in scep- 
ticism, and he made three mis- 
takes which show the defects of 
his particular character. For 
one thing, he left the company of 
the apostles and secluded him- 
self in some solitary place, and 
in so doing he followed the ex- 
ample of Simon Peter, without 
Peter's excuse. Simon went 
[162] 



Thomas the Doubter 

apart because he had sinned 
publicly against his Lord, and 
was ashamed to look his brethren 
in the face; Thomas went apart 
because he had lost his Lord, 
and would only, as he considered, 
be saddened by the sight of 
his friends. With the penitent 
apostle one has deep sympathy, 
and one cannot blame him. If 
a Christian has denied the Lord 
before men, and cast a stumbling- 
block in the path of his brethren, 
it would be effrontery for him to 
show himself as if nothing had 
happened, and by his presence 
to force that sin upon their 
notice. It is becoming that one 
who has so fallen should walk 
very softly and hide himself for a 
[163] 



Thomas the Doubter 

little in a secret place, where he 
may lay his contrite heart at the 
feet of his Saviour. When he 
has made his peace with the Lord, 
then let him rejoin his brethren 
and make his peace with them, 
and he is fortunate who, during 
his season of penitence, has some 
John to keep him company. 

But when a man's love is 
stronger than ever, so that he 
would rather have died than 
denied his Lord, and when it is 
his faith which has failed, so that 
he can no longer believe in the 
Lord, whom yet he loves, then 
his wisdom is to shun solitude 
and keep himself ever in the 
fellowship of his brethren. This 
man is not a deserter who can 
[164] 



Thomas the Doubtee 

only come back to his place with 
the amnesty of his captain; he 
is a gallant soldier who has been 
grievously wounded and requires 
the care of his fellows. Let him 
rejoin the colours, though it be 
on his hands and feet through 
loss of blood, and the whole 
regiment will bid him welcome 
and take him into its charge; 
for the regiment is proud of the 
man who falls fighting, and the 
deeper the wound the more it 
honours him. 

The poorest company for a 
sceptic like Thomas was himself, 
and the worst of all remedies was 
loneliness. Alone he could only 
brood over his doubts and nurse 
his fears till it would seem to 
[165] 



Thomas the Doubter 

him that immortality was a 
dream and death ended all. Best 
for him to place himself with 
those who loved the same Lord, 
and, even with the feeblest faith, 
are still waiting for Him. 

As one climbs the hillside and 
leaves the valley beneath, he 
escapes from the miasma with its 
dangerous germs, and in propor- 
tion as the sceptic associates with 
believers his soul will drink in 
faith as through its pores. While 
isolation may be a condition of 
recovery for some diseases, it is 
the aggravation of scepticism, 
and many honest and mournful 
victims of this spiritual disease 
would have been cured long ago, 
if they had not kept themselves 
[166] 



Thomas the Doubter 

apart from the body of Christian 
people. If they were only willing 
to worship with those who on the 
Lord's Day celebrate His resur- 
rection, they would find in this 
buoyant faith one of the evi- 
dences which they seek, and 
might even find that Lord whom 
they desire. 

What Thomas missed by his 
gloomy spirit and foolish absence ! 
Had he been in the upper room 
with his brethren, he would have 
heard the testimony of the faith- 
ful women to the Lord's resur- 
rection, and the witness of Peter 
and John to the empty grave; 
he would have seen the glad 
return of Peter, pardoned and 
restored, and the faces of Cleopas 
[167] 



Thomas the Doubteb, 

and his friend when they came 
back from Emmaus. He would 
have been one of that fortunate 
company to whom the Lord re- 
vealed Himself on the evening of 
Easter Day, and to whom He 
gave their great commission. All 
those beautiful experiences of the 
religious life Thomas lost be- 
cause he separated himself from 
the gathering of Christ's friends. 

Thomas also made the mistake, 
and for this he deserves to be 
very much blamed, of refusing the 
testimony of Christ's disciples. 
It was nothing to him that Mary 
Magdalene had seen the Lord, 
yet surely she knew Him well; 
or that Peter had had an inter- 
nes ] 



Thomas the Doubter 

view with his Master, with its 
sacred circumstances; or that 
Cleopas had beheld the Lord in 
the breaking of bread; or that a 
whole company of disciples had 
heard Him say, ' Peace be unto 
you.' No doubt they were simple 
folk, but yet they were honest 
and affectionate. Perhaps they 
were not so clever as Thomas, 
but they could tell Thomas what 
he did not know. 

There is apt to be a flavour of 
intellectual superiority in the 
Thomas type of mind, and a cer- 
tain amount of self-complacency 
mingles with its sincere regret. 
1 My dear old mother, ' says some 
modern Thomas, ' had no doubts, 
and I wish she could have given 
[169] 



Thomas the Doubter 

to me her simple and unquestion- 
ing faith; but there has been a 
great change since her day; she 
knew her Bible and her " Pil- 
grim's Progress," but she had 
never heard of biblical criticism, 
nor had she read any science/ 
And the son allows it to be 
understood, and indeed is con- 
vinced himself, that the reason 
of his scepticism is the strenu- 
ousness of his intellect and the 
breadth of his reading. He is suf- 
fering, he feels, from the defects 
of his qualities; he is hindered 
from the obedience of faith by 
the mastery of his mind. Is he 
sure that he knows so much, 
and his mother knew so little 
about religion, for it is not 
[170] 



Thomas the Doubter 

literature and science, but reli- 
gion which is the matter in hand? 
He tells us that his mother was 
the finest saint he ever saw, 
and he does not boast about his 
own sainthood. Where did she 
get her patience, her humility, 
her kindness, her trust? Was it 
not in fellowship with the risen 
Lord, and was not her life hid 
with Christ in G-od? This was 
her testimony, and it was proved 
by her life, by evidence as real 
and tangible as the facts of 
science. Why should her testi- 
mony not be received in the 
matter that she knew? Is it not 
more than likely that she was 
right, and Christ is risen from 
the dead? Is it not a limitation 

[171] 



Thomas the Doubter 

of intellect to refuse her evi- 
dence? 

And Thomas made a third 
mistake when he demanded un- 
reasonable evidence of the resur- 
rection. No sooner had the Lord 
revealed Himself in the upper 
room than the disciples, with the 
kindliness of those early days, 
remembered Thomas, and we can 
imagine the regret of John that 
one disciple was missing when 
Jesus came, and that disciple the 
man who loved the Lord with all 
his heart. John's heart would 
go out in pity from that room, 
full of light and peace, to the 
dark and hopeless chamber where 
Thomas kept company with his 
unbelief. Their joy would not be 
[172] 



Thomas the Doubter 

complete until Thomas shared it, 
and in the true spirit of their 
Lord they sought out their 
doubting brother and carried him 
the good tidings — only to be 
disappointed. 

It seems as if Thomas was 
afraid that his reason might be 
conquered by his hope, and so he 
went to an extremity of precau- 
tion. It was not enough for him 
that the women had seen Christ, 
and Peter had spoken with Christ, 
and Christ had walked with two 
disciples, and that he had given 
peace to the whole company. 
Thomas must see Him with his 
own eyes; and even eyesight 
would not be enough to convince 
his mind; he must not only see 
[1731 



Thomas the Doubter 

Christ's hands, but lie must put 
his finger into the print of the 
nails; he must not only see 
Christ's side, but must thrust his 
hand into the wound. He not 
only demanded the evidence of 
the senses, but insisted upon the 
proof of touch, which is the most 
material of the senses. If he 
could not only see and touch, but 
also handle Christ, then he would 
believe that Christ had risen, and 
so he laid down to the horrified 
disciples his ultimatum, beyond 
which he could not go, from 
which he would not recede. 

Had this been any other than 

Thomas, his brethren might well 

have been angry, for this was 

the very madness of intellectual 

T174] 



Thomas the Doubter 

obstinacy; but the form of his 
condition had its own pathos 
and showed that his scepticism 
was shot through with love. One 
gathers from the minuteness 
and the repetition of his wrong- 
headed demand that a fond, sad 
memory had been dwelling all 
those weary hours upon the 
passion of the Master, and that 
his love had made its home in 
the wounds of the Lord. He 
still saw the print of the nails 
and the spear thrust in His 
side, and nothing could turn 
away his affection from this last 
picture of his Lord. Through 
that ghastly wound Thomas had 
gone out into darkness, wounded 
unto death, and through the 

[175] 



Thomas the Doubter 

same door only would lie come 
back to life with his living Lord. 
1 Except I thrust my hand into 
His side.' It is a fearful re- 
quest, but for the love which 
made so much of the Lord's suf- 
fering let Thomas be forgiven 
the scepticism which asks such 
unspiritual evidence. 

x Christ outdid Himself in His 
kindness to Thomas. When 
Thomas laid down the final con- 
dition on which he would believe, 
he was speaking, although he 
knew it not, into wiser and 
kindlier ears than those of his 
fellow-disciples ; and, although 
Thomas had refused to join him- 
self to the company in the upper 
[176] 



Thomas the Doubter 

room, he could not prevent the 
Lord of that company coming to 
his room. If John bethought 
himself of Thomas, much more 
did the Lord ; and if the disciples 
had it in their hearts to visit 
the solitary, they did not antici- 
pate the Master. The Lord, who 
found out Peter in his place of 
retreat, was not unmindful of 
His other friend, and the moan- 
ings of Thomas through the 
night watches were not unheard 
of Jesus. We may hide ourselves 
from the disciples whom we are 
tempted to despise for their fond 
simplicity, we cannot hide our- 
selves from the Master; and 
when our unbelieving heart, sick 
of its unbelief, relieves itself in 
[177] 



Thomas the Doubter 

foolish, words, they pass into the 
heart of Christ. 

The disciples left the lodging 
of Thomas, cast down and dis- 
consolate, because they had no 
hope now that Thomas would 
ever believe, and Thomas sat 
down in his misery to eat out 
his heart with sorrow. Thomas 
had done his worst and the dis- 
ciples had done their best, and it 
remained the crudest of situa- 
tions — a disciple refusing to be- 
lieve that the Lord had risen, 
and breaking his heart because 
he could not believe. The dis- 
ciples have done what they could, 
and they have done well; for 
they have refused to be content 
without Thomas, and they have 
[178] 



Thomas the Doubter 

sought him out in their charity, 
and they have pleaded with him 
as with a brother, and they have 
entered into his sufferings. They 
have deserved well of Thomas 
and they have deserved well of 
the Master, and the Master Him- 
self will now deal with Thomas. 
Thomas had asked for a sign, 
and Jesus had no love for signs 
because He thought that they 
ministered only to the love of 
wonder, and because He sus- 
pected the spirit which asked 
for them. When the Pharisees 
required a sign, He called them 
an evil and adulterous generation, 
and through all His ministry He 
never condescended to work a 
single miracle in order to win 
[179] 



Thomas the Doubter 

His enemies to His side. No 
request was more likely to 
offend the Lord, or to make Him 
angry, than this very thing 
which Thomas asked, and on 
which he staked his faith. There 
was, however, a wide difference 
between the Pharisees crying out 
for a sign that they might grat- 
ify their curiosity and, if possible, 
put Christ to confusion, and a 
heart-broken disciple desiring an 
unquestionable proof that his 
faith had not been in vain and 
that his love had not lost his Lord. 

Jesus can distinguish between 

those who hate Him and those 

who love Him, although they 

may fall sometimes into the same 

[180] 



Thomas the Doubter 

error and speak with the same 
tongue. For an unbeliever, like 
the Pharisee — shallow, insincere, 
unloving — Jesus will make no 
concession ; but for a sceptic like 
Thomas — earnest, loyal, and ten- 
der — there is nothing that our 
Master is not willing to do. 
What He refused yesterday to 
another kind of man, He will 
give to-day to this man; He will 
not stand upon His dignity, 
or upon His consistency, with 
Thomas; the Master will forget 
everything except that the light 
has gone out of a brave man's 
life through despair of love, and 
that it is in His power to light 
the lamp again. 
We may very well take from 
[181] 



Thomas the Doubter 

a friend what we would not take 
from a stranger, and we forget 
his foolishness because of his af- 
fection ; for strangers are nothing 
to us, but friends are few. There 
was not so much love in the 
world that Jesus could afford to 
lose one true heart, not so much 
honesty of mind that Jesus would 
scruple about convincing Thomas. 
What a patient, faithful, hope- 
less love was his! Was it so 
that he could not forget ' the 
print of the nails '? — then he 
should see them again if he so 
desired. Was it so that the 
gaping wound in the Master's 
side had never departed from 
before his eyes? — then Thomas 
shall handle it if it please 
[182] 



Thomas the Doubter 

him. There is nothing the Lord 
will not do, that the load may- 
be lifted from off the heart of 
Thomas and he may know that 
the wounds of his Friend are for 
ever healed and that no spear will 
ever again pierce his risen Lord. 

And Thomas in the end outdid 
himself in faith, so that the 
kindness of the Lord had its full 
recompense of reward. If the 
disciples went back disheartened 
from the place where Thomas 
lodged, and reported that their 
visit had been of no avail, they 
were wrong, and had not done 
justice either to Thomas or to 
themselves, for though he had 
not been moved by their argu- 
[183] 



Thomas the Doubter 

ments and had not become par- 
taker of their faith, he was 
touched by their kindness, and 
they had conquered his heart. 
Their faces and their words had 
brought back the days of pleas- 
ant fellowship, and his loneliness 
grew unendurable. On the next 
Lord's Day, as the disciples meet 
in the upper room to comfort one 
another with the remembrance 
of the Lord's resurrection, who 
should come in but Thomas ! Be 
sure he was welcome, and his 
coming made glad their hearts. 
And now there remained only 
one thing to complete their joy, 
and within every heart there was 
one prayer that the Lord would 
come and reveal Himself to them 
[184] 



Thomas the Doubter 

and to Thomas. Suddenly and 
mysteriously, as before, Jesus 
appeared, and when He has 
saluted the disciples with His 
word of peace He turns to 
Thomas. While the apostle re- 
fused to meet with his brethren 
Jesus might be with him, but 
He was hidden. So soon as 
Thomas took his place once more 
among the disciples Jesus re- 
vealed Himself. l " Thy finger 
into the print of the nails, ' ' didst 
thou say, Thomas ? It is granted 
thee, that thou mayest believe. 
Behold My hand! Eeach hither 
thy finger. " Thy hand into My 
side," Thomas, didst thou say? 
This also is granted thee, that 
thou mayest believe* Behold 
[185] 



Thomas the Doubter 

My side! Where is thy hand? 
Thrust it in.' Everything which 
he had asked was offered him 
exactly as he asked it, and, 
strange to say, Thomas refused 
to avail himself of his Master's 
kindness. He reached hither no 
finger, he thrust in no hand, he 
cast aside his own conditions, 
and having declared that he 
would never believe unless he 
was allowed to handle his Lord's 
body, when the Lord in His 
immense condescension offered 
Himself for the handling, 
Thomas would not lay a finger 
upon Him. What need to touch 
when he had seen and heard? 
Before him stood his Friend of 
Galilee, and to be assured that 
[186] 



Thomas the Doubter 

Jesus was alive was enough to 
satisfy the heart of Thomas. 

He was to know more than 
that, and his faith was to rise 
higher than he had ever hoped, 
for now it appeared that Jesus 
had not only been risen from the 
dead while he supposed Him to 
be lying in the grave, but Jesus 
had been thinking of him and 
been with him during those past 
days. Jesus had heard him de- 
clare his unbelief, and had seen 
the tears of his heart ; Jesus had 
taken note of his exact words, 
and had repeated them that even- 
ing. The Master had not been 
angry, but more merciful than 
ever; He had not refused him 
his bold request, but had offered 
[187] 



Thomas the Doubter 

him all that he asked. What 
manner of man was this who 
could stand unseen in a disciple's 
room and knew the thought of a 
disciple's heart! This was more 
than the Friend of Galilee, and 
more than any master of mere 
flesh and blood. To be present 
everywhere and to feel with 
every heart, and to have mercy 
upon the weakest and the sad- 
dest — this is divine. And the 
faith of Thomas, which had de- 
scended lower than that of any 
other disciple, rose highest of 
them all. He had imagined that 
if his request were granted and 
he had verified the wounds of his 
friend he would kneel at Jesus' 
feet and cry, ' My Master ' ; but 
[188] 



Thomas the Doubter 

now he had passed Friend and 
Master, and Thomas made the 
great confession, ' My Lord and 
my God.' 

Blessed was Thomas, who, 
having seen, believed; more 
blessed they who without sight 
are able to believe. Sight may, 
doubtless, be an aid to faith, as 
the physical revelation of the 
Lord helped Thomas, as the 
bread and wine help us in the 
Holy Supper, but the supreme 
and convincing evidence of the 
risen Lord is our fellowship with 
Him and His grace towards us. 
It is His patience, His under- 
standing, His charity, His loving- 
kindness. Who is this keeping 
vigil with us through our night 
[189] 



Thomas the Doubteb 

of doubt, entering into our secret 
thoughts, answering our deepest 
questions, strengthening us to 
watch as those that watch for the 
morning, and then appearing to 
our spiritual vision with morn- 
ing songs? With Thomas, who, 
if he believed late, believed most 
perfectly, and with the Church 
of all the ages, which has one 
voice, we answer, i My Lord and 
my God.' 



[190] 



MAR 26 1912 



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